"All-round service"

Fog and night: Mexicans rescued from the Nordkette

The Innsbruck mountain rescuers brought the Mexicans to the Langer Sattel, Christophorus 1 flew the trio down to the city.(Bild: Bergrettung Innsbruck)

The Mexicans who got into mountain trouble on the Innsbruck via ferrata on Saturday evening were not expecting this kind of service. First, Innsbruck Mountain Rescue and the C 1 emergency helicopter brought the trio down to the valley, then the emergency services organized the Mexicans' passports, which had been "locked up" in a sports store.

The Mexicans - father, adult son and adult daughter - had entered the Innsbruck via ferrata on the Nordkette at around 11 a.m. and were making very slow progress. The father had also hit his knee on a rock and was unable to make any further progress at around 6 pm. The trio raised the alarm.

The Mexicans were accompanied to the Langer Sattel - the injured man made it with the help of the emergency services.(Bild: Bergrettung Innsbruck, Krone KREATIV)

No telephone contact possible
"We suspected the alpinists were in the area between Kemmacher and Langer Sattel, but couldn't reach them by phone," explains Bruno Berloffa, head of operations at Innsbruck Mountain Rescue. The mountain rescuers then contacted the crew of the Christophorus 1 emergency helicopter, which took off on a search flight in the dark and fog. However, this ended in vain.

The emergency services secured the Mexicans.(Bild: Bergrettung Innsbruck, Krone KREATIV)

"Despite the difficult conditions, the crew then offered to fly four of us to the Langer Sattel," says Berloffa. From there, the mountain rescue quartet climbed up towards Kemmacher and met the Mexican trio in the area at around 8 pm.

"The man's injury wasn't that bad, but the Mexicans, who had no warm clothing with them, were freezing badly.

Bruno Berloffa, Einsatzleiter und Ortsstellenleiter Bergrettung Innsbruck

Bild: Alberto Bernasconi

"The man's injury wasn't that bad," says Bruno Berloffa. "But the Mexicans, who didn't have any warm clothing with them, were very cold. We therefore put heating vests on them and then began the joint descent to the long saddle." With the help of the mountain rescuers, the man with the knee injury also made it down.

Christophorus 1 then took off again from Innsbruck to the Long Saddle and flew the Mexicans down to the valley. The injured man did not require any medical care there. And although the fog was getting heavier and heavier, the helicopter then returned to the Nordkette mountain range and flew the four rescue workers down to the city.

But the mission didn't end there: the Mexicans were now faced with another problem: they had planned to travel to Munich by train that evening in order to fly back to Mexico on Sunday. The crux of the matter: their ID documents were in the Mammut store in the center of Innsbruck, where they had rented the via ferrata sets.

Heli start at the Langer Sattel into Innsbruck at night below.(Bild: Bergrettung Innsbruck)

Store manager brought the passes
As helpful as the Innsbruck mountain rescuers are, Bruno Berloffa contacted the store manager Doris Moser. Just as helpful, she left a party immediately after the call and drove to the store. From there, she brought the passes to the Mexicans, who were staying in a nearby hotel - perfect customer service!

Train connections researched
In the meantime, the mountain rescuers had researched bus and train connections to Munich - and the trio were indeed still on the train to the Bavarian metropolis late that evening. The Mexicans have probably already returned home by now.

"Our service was probably perfect"
"The collaboration with Christophorus 1 was perfect", mountain rescuer Berloffa sums up and smiles: "Our service for the Mexicans was probably perfect too."